[IP] EFF: Diebold May Face Consequences for Misuse of Copyright Law
-----Original Message-----
From: Joseph Lorenzo Hall <jhall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2004 09:00:09
To:Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: EFF: Diebold May Face Consequences for Misuse of Copyright Law
February 8, 2004
Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Advisory
Diebold May Face Consequences for Misuse of Copyright Law -- Tried to
Stop Publication of Information on Electronic Voting Machine Flaws
For Immediate Release: Friday, February 6, 2004
San Jose, CA - Nonprofit Internet Service Provider (ISP) Online Policy
Group (OPG) and two Swarthmore college students are seeking
compensation from electronic voting machine company Diebold Systems,
Inc., in federal court this Monday, February 9. They are asking the
court to rule that Diebold face the consequences of abusing copyright
law to threaten the Internet connectivity of those who published or
linked to a corporate email archive indicating flaws in Diebold's
voting machines and irregularities with certifying them for actual
elections.
Case: Online Policy Group v. Diebold (case number CV-03-04913-JF)
Date: 9:00 am on Monday, February 9, 2004
Location: 280 South 1st Street
San Jose, CA 95113
Courtroom 3, 5th Floor
Judge: Hon. Jeremy Fogel
Represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Center
for Internet and Society Cyberlaw Clinic, OPG and the Swarthmore
students are seeking compensation from Diebold for misuse of copyright
law, as well as a court order clarifying that those who publish or
link to the archive -- and ISPs who provide Internet connectivity to
them -- have not violated copyright law.
"Copyright law must not become a tool of censorship," said EFF Legal
Director Cindy Cohn. "In this case, Diebold used phony copyright
claims to silence public debate about voting, the very foundation of
our democratic process."
Swarthmore students Nelson Pavlosky and Luke Smith published the
Diebold email archive, which contains descriptions of flaws in
Diebold's electronic voting machines written by the company's own
employees.
Diebold threatened not only the ISPs of direct publishers of the
corporate documents, but also the ISPs of those who merely publish
links to the documents. The ISP OPG refused to comply with Diebold's
demand that it prohibit Independent Media Network (IndyMedia) from
linking to Diebold documents.
"As an ISP committed to free speech, we are affirming our users' right
to link to information that's critical to the debate on the
reliability of electronic voting machines," said OPG's Colocation
Director David Weekly.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), passed by Congress in
1998, provides a "safe harbor" provision as an incentive for ISPs to
take down user-posted content when they receive cease-and-desist
letters such as the ones sent by Diebold. By removing the content, or
forcing the user to do so, for a minimum of 10 days, an ISP can take
itself out of the middle of any copyright claim. As a result, few ISPs
have tested whether they would face liability for such user activity
in a court of law. EFF has been exposing some of the ways that the
safe harbor provision can be used to silence legitimate online speech
through the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse.
Contact:
Cindy Cohn
Legal Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation
cindy@xxxxxxx
Jennifer Granick
Clinical Director
Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society
jennifer@xxxxxxxxxxx
David Weekly
Colocation Director
Online Policy Group
david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
About EFF:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil liberties
organization working to protect rights in the digital world. Founded
in 1990, EFF actively encourages and challenges industry and
government to support free expression and privacy online. EFF is a
member-supported organization and maintains one of the most linked-to
websites in the world at http://www.eff.org/
About Center for Internet and Society Cyberlaw Clinic:
The Center for Internet and Society (CIS) is a public interest
technology law and policy program at Stanford Law School and a part of
Law, Science and Technology Program. The CIS brings together scholars,
academics, legislators, students, programmers, security researchers,
and scientists to study the interaction of new technologies and the
law and to examine how the synergy between the two can either promote
or harm public goods like free speech, privacy, public commons,
diversity, and scientific inquiry. The CIS Cyberlaw Clinic gives
Stanford Law School students an opportunity to work with clients on
cases and legal projects that involve questions of technology, law and
the public interest.
About OPG:
The Online Policy Group (OPG) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to
online policy research, outreach, and action on issues such as access,
privacy, the digital divide, and digital defamation. The organization
fulfills its motto of "One Internet With Equal Access for All" through
programs such as donation-based email, email list hosting, website
hosting, domain registrations, colocation services, technical
consulting, educational training, and refurbished computer donations.
The California Community Colocation Project (CCCP) and QueerNet are
OPG projects. OPG focuses on Internet participants' civil liberties
and human rights, like access, privacy, safety, and serving schools,
libraries, disabled, elderly, youth, women, and sexual, gender, and
ethnic minorities. Find out more at http://www.onlinepolicy.org/
About IndyMedia:
IndyMedia is an international network working to build a
decentralized, non-commercial media infrastructure to counter an
increasingly consolidated corporate media. IndyMedia collectives have
spread rapidly since the WTO protests in Seattle 1999, with IMC groups
now working throughout North & South America, the Middle East, Europe,
Africa, Asia and Oceania, accessible through http://www.indymedia.org/
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Joseph Lorenzo Hall http://pobox.com/~joehall/
Graduate Student blog: http://pobox.com/~joehall/nqb/
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